A march honoring Cesar Chavez moves from West Sacramento to Chavez Plaza in Sacramento in 2010. Sacramento County is expected to add Chavez’s March 31 birthday as a paid holiday.
Michael Allen Jones
Sacramento Bee file

A march honoring Cesar Chavez moves from West Sacramento to Chavez Plaza in Sacramento in 2010. Sacramento County is expected to add Chavez’s March 31 birthday as a paid holiday.
Michael Allen Jones
Sacramento Bee file

Sacramento County expected to add Cesar Chavez holiday

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is expected to vote Tuesday to add a county holiday in honor of the late labor leader Cesar Chavez.

If approved, Chavez’s March 31 birthday would become a paid holiday for county employees. They would join state of California and city of Sacramento employees who already receive that paid day off.

In a county news release, Supervisor Phil Serna called the need for a county holiday honoring Chavez “long overdue” considering Chavez’s significance in the region and the state having created a holiday in his honor in 2000. Serna got to know Chavez because he was a mentor to his father, the late Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr.

The county received a letter from Chavez’s son Paul and United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez thanking the county for the anticipated approval of the holiday.

A survey found that Sacramento County’s current 12 holidays per year is one less than similar-sized governments, according to a county news release.